What do you feed your SPS? And tips?

DracoKat · Aug 31, 2016

I am getting my first frags of SPS this weekend.. I probably took too big of a leap and getting 11 or 12 acros and other SPS frags from Reefersgarage.. but, the deal was good and decided to try, lol. I feel my tank is ready for some with T5's and soon to be supplemented with an LED strip.

I picked up Oyster Feast to start with.

What do you feed them and how?
Should I set my gyro to pulsing mode, or leave it alternating? I am planning on bumping up the flow.
About how fast do they grow?

any other advice and tips for a successful SPS tank would be great!

DereksReef77 · Aug 31, 2016

I have been feeding my sps and fish about 5 min before lights out. I turn off the return pump and skimmer. I leave my powerheads on. I add some lrs reef frenzy and a little oysterfeast and Dr.G's eco egg brew or reef nutrition roe. An hour later I turn the return pump back on but leave the skimmer off for about 5 hours. So far so good. Getting more polyp extension and corals are looking great. Be sure to test your nitrates and phosphates after feedings so they don't get out of controll. That way you can taylor your feedings and and not mess up your parameters.

G8trBait16 · Aug 31, 2016

On my SPS dominated tank, I feed Reef Roids 2 or 3 Times a week when the lights are out and 2.5 ml Acropower daily in the afternoon. in a small cup I put tank water in it and 3/4 Tbsp. of reef Roids in the cup, stir and put it in the flow of my 2 MP40's on feed mode. There are so many different methods on when and what to feed and there are people that don't feed anything at all. It all depends on what you want to do. Some acros grow faster than others, depends on the light, stable water parameters, and flow. Wish you luck, if you have anymore questions feel free to ask.

DracoKat · Aug 31, 2016

Oh, I have Acropower!

Need to look at reef roids. I think I have a sample packet given to me from the RAP.

thanks for the tip on testing the waters to keep parameters in check!

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 31, 2016

DracoKat said:
I probably took too big of a leap and getting 11 or 12 acros and other SPS frags from Reefersgarage..

Yea those guys.

Whats worse is theyre really cool guys honest and have great corals too.
dont worry to hard on feeding the sticks, fish poop rules and detectable nitrates and Phosphates are first. Other foods are suppliments.
Get a lux meter and check the amount of light you have. $13.99 on amazon. True that not all sps are high light but you will want to be able to pull 400 to 500 par at the top of the tank(35000 lux t0 50,000 lux)
im an SPS newb as well, so Im officially in my "coral killer phase" Heres what I learned
Stability= keep your hands out of the tank.
Browning= normal during acclimation esp with wild corals(higer nutrient in tank) they will acclimate but generally will need more light.
Changes take a month, my sticks have gone from brown to bright by keeping my hands out and waiting. yea a month.
Flow laminar, turbulant, and surge. these are the three types. MY sticks seem to do ok in all three. (even low in a couple cases)if your tank flow is good already, dont change it. see stability.
if theres not enough flow I have seen slow stn at the base and sides. similar to shadowing spots bit in areas of light.
Some sticks dont like you. They will die.= some corals sticks zoas etc are just sensitive they just melt. Your tank is not providing or providing too much of something. On sps, there is the old adage of an established mature tank. I believe the science behind this is mainly bacterial and addition of micronutrients in that process back into a system. there is some magic(bacteria bugs rot) in an old rock that squeezes good stuff back out into the water. thus the careful addition of suppliments. some of THE best mixed and sps dom tanks I have read on are a fuge and cal reactor tank. With a fuge not only are you using a slow controlled Po No export but your adding bugs and micro foods (plankton) the cal reactor adds not only cal trace other minerals directly from old live rock. These principals are the basis if the triton Zeovite and balling methods.

saltyfilmfolks · Aug 31, 2016

Last thing. I did a pretty long initial acclimation. prob 45 min each. add 50% water, dumped half added another 50%. Didnt test LFS water didnt test mine. long acclimation for salinity and alk paranoia.

Neil Fox · Sep 2, 2016

I would just start them low in the tank and see how they do. You say you have T5s but not how many and color. They are usually great for acro's. If the par is good you should be fine. Some more info about your tank may be helpful (tank size, number of lamps, color etc.). I have a Gyre 130 I think but my tank is pretty small right now (around 40gal), I keep it almost full blast near the top on a pulsing mode to simulate a wave surge. Mostly, let them adjust to the light. The first week they will be settling in. I noticed a lot of acros get PE right out of the bag and then shut down for a day or so. When they start showing a feeding response (polyp extension during fish feedings) then you might try feeding them, until then just feed the fish otherwise you aren't accomplishing much. I wouldn't worry much about growth at first, but make sure that you give them space for when they do. They grow a lot slower when you are watching them LOL. Take some pics at regular intervals so you can see results. Good luck.